Balances at correspondent accounts hit this year's maximum

The balances at correspondent accounts of Russian commercial banks surged significantly as of the beginning of business today. They went up more than 17bn rubles (about $534m) to almost 116bn rubles (about $3.64bn) in Russia and more than 15bn rubles (about $471m) to about 73bn rubles (about $2.29bn) in the Moscow region. This was the most significant rise since the beginning of this year. It resulted in a fall in ruble credit rates, which had already been low, to a minimum level. One-day ruble credit rates were at 6 percent this morning, before a significant rise in balances at correspondent accounts was announced, and then dropped to 3-3.5 percent.